ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor officials are making budget plans for next year and beyond with the expectation that $2.2 million in new annual revenue is coming to the city from a new countywide tax.

That includes $880,000 for affordable housing, $880,000 for efforts to address climate change and $440,000 for pedestrian safety in the first year, according to budget information presented during a City Council work session Monday night, March 12.

Washtenaw County voters approved a new county mental health and public safety millage in November by a 2-to-1 margin.

The tax is scheduled be levied for the first time in December and is estimated to raise about $15.4 million in the first year.

Roughly three-quarters of the new revenue is to be split between Washtenaw County Community Mental Health and the Sheriff's Office, while nearly a quarter of the money is to go to seven municipalities that have their own police forces to use as they see fit.

The Ann Arbor City Council, as it publicly communicated last year ahead of the vote, is planning to use its share for pedestrian safety, affordable housing and efforts to address climate change, or what the city calls "climate action."

As it's an eight-year millage, the city expects to receive many millions of dollars from the tax over the next eight years.

Rider confirmed on Tuesday, March 13, that he has contacted an attorney who specializes in election law and he's considering filing a lawsuit against the county to stop the tax from being levied.

"The state law, as I understand it, requires that if you're going to have an assessment for additional taxes, then the ballot proposal has to say how those taxes are going to be used," he said, noting there were no restrictions placed on the portion going to Ann Arbor and six other municipalities in the county that fund their own police forces.

If he decides to file a lawsuit, Rider said it would be as a private citizen and would not involve any use of township funds.

Since the tax isn't scheduled to be levied until December and the funds have to pass through the county first, Ann Arbor isn't expected to see its first-year share until sometime between April and June of 2019, said Tom Crawford, the city's chief financial officer.

Crawford discussed the matter during Monday night's budget session, telling council members the plan is to minimize use of the new proceeds in the 2018-19 fiscal year, since the money won't be coming until near the end of the fiscal year. But he expects the new funds will be fully available for use in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2019.

Crawford said the plan for the $880,000 in new annual funding for affordable housing is to put 25 percent toward the Ann Arbor Housing Commission's support services and operating shortfalls to help the commission remain sustainable, while the other 75 percent would go into the city's affordable housing fund. That money potentially could be used to fund new affordable housing projects and other efforts.

Crawford said the plan for the $880,000 in new annual funding for climate action is to use $165,000 to fund two full-time positions related to climate action, transferring that cost from the general fund to the new millage funds, while putting $75,000 toward developing a plan for how to use the remaining funds.

"There's a significant amount of money that we'd really like to have a tight plan around," he said of the proposed $75,000 plan.

For the $440,000 in new annual funding for pedestrian safety, Crawford proposed putting $115,000 toward new streetlights and $200,000 for electronic speed-limit signs in front of schools on major corridors. Other projects and uses are still being explored.

He said the city is assuming installation of 30 new streetlights per year and the city could fund half those with the $115,000, while private developers could include the other half in their projects.

Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, mentioned the threat of a potential lawsuit against the county to stop the new tax.

He said that's a risk and he asked Crawford how that has affected the city's budgeting process. Crawford said it hasn't at this point.

Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, asked how the proposed $75,000 plan for how to use new climate-action dollars would differ from the city's existing Climate Action Plan.

City Administrator Howard Lazarus said that's based on conversations he's had with members of the city's Energy and Environmental commissions to develop a plan to effectively use the money.

Some residents who want the city to put the new money toward mental health and public safety showed up to city hall Monday night. In interviews before the meeting, they said they believe a good number of voters last November didn't realize they were voting to fund pedestrian safety, affordable housing and climate action efforts since those weren't spelled out on the ballot.

Before Ann Arbor council members take action to approve the city's next annual budget in May, the group of residents argues the council should form an advisory group of experts to help them figure out how to efficiently spend the money from the new countywide tax to improve mental health and public safety services.

"Our hypothesis is -- and who knows for sure -- that most people thought they were voting for mental health and public safety services, and we need to respect the will of the public," said Glenn Nelson, a former Ann Arbor school board member and retired economic consultant. "So, let's explore what the will of the public is."

Ann Arbor resident Alice Carter, another member of the group, suggested the city should hold public forums to allow residents to weigh in on how the money should be used over the next eight years.

Though residents will have a chance to do that at upcoming council meetings, including a public hearing on the budget on May 7, Carter said she wants the city to do more to get input from residents on putting the new millage money to use.

Ann Arbor resident Elizabeth Koschmann, a University of Michigan psychologist and director of the TRAILS program at UM, is another member of the group. Her program provides clinical training to school professionals on serving students with mental health issues, though she emphasized she's only speaking for herself.

As a city resident, Koschmann said she voted for the tax last November to provide needed mental health funds. She said she had no idea Ann Arbor would use $2.2 million for other things.

"So, I feel misled as a citizen," she said, arguing there's a need to reach students with mental health issues in schools because many of them never end up at Community Mental Health.

"The don't," agreed Carter, who said she worked nearly 20 years at the Huron Valley Child Guidance Clinic as a child psychotherapist and director of infant mental health. She said many children coming through the clinic had a parent who was incarcerated.

"And I had wanted to develop some kind of program for them, and I was excited for this millage that there may be some creative opportunities, so that's where I think the millage could be helpful is to either expand something that's already there or start to do something creative between the city and the county," she said.

Mayor Christopher Taylor said he believes the City Council has a moral obligation to use its share of the millage money as the council told voters it would ahead of the November election.

"We promised by resolution on two occasions before the November vote to use Ann Arbor's rebate monies for climate action, affordable housing and pedestrian safety," he said. "I myself emailed that information to thousands of Ann Arbor residents. This action received substantial press and public comment, both inside Ann Arbor and outside of Ann Arbor. It was not a secret. The millage was entirely clear that rebate monies would be suitable for any purpose."

The county board adopted a policy ordinance on Sept. 20 outlining specifically how the county's share of the funds would be used if the tax was approved, covering four broad areas of mental health services: (1) crisis funding; (2) stabilization funding; (3) prevention funding; and (4) jail services for inmates with mental health issues.

In addition, funds would support the Sheriff Office's efforts to provide countywide police services "with an emphasis on criminal justice system diversion along with collaborative efforts involving mental health and substance abuse disorder treatment partners."

The broad spending categories are described this way in the county's policy ordinance:

Crisis: Funding will be used to address mental health and substance abuse crises, which include immediate crisis assessment, referral, treatment and diversion from jail or emergency departments. Additionally, funds will be used for supportive services post crisis engagement, including supportive housing services.

Stabilization: Funding will be used to provide mental health treatment services to adults and children with the severe mental illness and developmental disabilities who do not currently qualify for services due to insurance status or unaffordable deductibles and to those individuals for whom traditional outpatient treatment is not adequate.

Prevention: Funding will be used to support mental health awareness, prevention, and early intervention programming for use in working with community partners such as schools, law enforcement and other first responders, and heath care providers.

Jail services: Jail service expansion will include mental health and substance abuse assessment and treatment inclusive of counseling and psychiatric services and prisoner re-entry with a focus on case management.

In terms of the issue of teen suicide in particular, Community Mental Health Director Trish Cortes has said the county has a crisis on its hands and needs to double down on efforts to do early identification of mental health issues among young people. She also has said expanded resources would allow the county to do more to educate and inform the community, reduce the stigma around behavioral health issues, and treat mental health more like physical health.

Warpehoski said he sees the $2.2 million annual "rebate" the city is getting from the tax as simply making the city whole for the Sheriff's Office portion of the millage since Ann Arbor already has a police department of its own.

"I think a conversation about how the AAPD can pursue the same goals as the WCSO has spelled out in the county millage use ordinance is a good conversation," he said.

"There has been discussion about establishing a crisis response team for people in mental health crisis and providing mental health first aid training to all officers. I think these should move forward."

Warpehoski said the specialty courts such as the mental health and substance abuse courts that Ann Arbor helps fund through its 15th District Court also are good examples of addressing the needs of people with mental health issues.